Measure in Love
by Samaster
Summary: This story follows Troy and Ryan's first year as a couple, so join them for each of the holidays as they go through their first 525,600 minutes of love. Tryan slash.
1. New Year

Measure in Love.

AN: Yes I know that I normally put this at the end but I just need to say two things. This has nothing to do with RENT, I was just listening to seasons of love when I came up with this idea and the lyrics fit the idea of a couple's first year, but anyway if that's what you came to read then go now unless you want to read anyway (which I suggest you do). Secondly, as mentioned in the summary, this is slash so if you're to ignorant and closed minded to look past that then go now because I don't have time for bigoted homophobe's flames or stupid opinions. Enjoy!

New Year's Day.

There was no way Troy Bolton would have expected what had happened to happen. He had no idea why one of his best friends would do this to him. His mind was in such a state of shock and now he had no idea what was going on inside his head. Obviously he knew that Ryan was gay, I mean it's Ryan Evans or crying out loud! He dressed gay, he acted gay, and he had been in 18 school musicals, but what had happened had changed everything. The event repeated itself in his mind, playing on the back of his eyelids every time he closed his eyes to figure things out.

_Everyone was in the living room of the Evan's mansion in front of the TV for the New Year countdown._

"_5!"_

_Ryan was shouting along with the countdown just like everyone else in the room. This year hadn't exactly been the best year ever. He had been outed by someone he thought he could trust and people didn't exactly accept him straight away. He had gone through quite a bit of bullying and exclusion until summer when he had made friends with Chad Danforth at his families country club and pretty soon after that he had also made friends with Troy Bolton. Chad and Troy were unexpectedly accepting of his sexuality and when he returned to school no-one messed with him anymore._

"_4!"_

_Troy was holding a glass of champagne in his hand and was shouting along with everyone else in the room. He had a strange feeling about this year. This year just felt like it was going to be special. He couldn't understand why but he knew that this year was going to be the start of something very new._

"_3!"_

_Ryan's feelings for Troy had gotten stronger over the course of their friendship. He definitely didn't want to be "just friends" anymore. He wanted him and Troy to be so much more. Late at night he would lie awake, thinking about Troy waking up beside him, stroking his hair as he woke and kissing him gently while Troy pulled him closer into his arms. _

"_2!"_

_Troy had had quite a strange year. Shortly after the summer he and Gabriella had come to a mutual agreement that it would be best for them to just be friends. They had made up after the whole talent show incident but the lateness and date cancelling had continued so they both decided to call it off but continue to be friends. After this he didn't really get with another girl despite numerous offers. He just didn't feel any attraction to any of them even though many of them were the most beautiful cheerleaders in the school. Even now at this party he remained dateless and spent most of his time with his three best friends: Chad, Gabriella and of course, Ryan._

"_1!"_

_Ryan was sick of always wishing. He wanted to do something about all this he was feeling. He wanted his fantasies to come true and it was not just going to happen by itself. He had to do something and he was going to!_

"_Happy new year!"_

_The crowd was shouting and hugging but all this seemed to dissolve away because on the count of midnight Ryan pressed his lips against Troy's in a moment of pure courage and love. The music and shouting melted away and all that was left was this kiss. It seemed as if it had lasted forever even though it must have only been a few seconds. Ryan looked at Troy's face and did not see anger, he did not see disgust, all he saw was confusion. He tried to choke out a sentence but before he could Troy was already running out of the room and up the stairs._

So now Ryan found locked in the bathroom with no sound coming from inside. Troy was slumped behind of the door with his head in his hands, trying to make sense of that which carried on playing in his mind. Ryan slid down the other side of the door, waiting for Troy to come to terms with this in his own time.

Troy must have known who was on the other side of the door. He knew that he would eventually have to talk about what had happened so he thought it would be better when he couldn't see him, so this would not be any more complicated.

"Why?" Troy asked.

"Why do you think?" Ryan replied. He really did not want to say the real reason, even though he knew he must eventually.

"Look, I think I know… I just want to be sure."

"I did it because…" Ryan's voice trailed off as he avoided the answer that would turn everything upside-down.

"… I love you."

Silence…

Troy knew this was coming but he had no idea how he was going to respond. This was all too strange. He should have said for him to get away from him, he should have screamed at him, he should have done a lot of things but instead the most unexpected words came out of his mouth.

"I love you too." He replied, only to once again stun both of them into silence.

He didn't expect to say that and Ryan certainly didn't expect to hear it, but it was true. This is why Troy had turned down all those girls and why he had been spending more and more time with Ryan. This is why he knew this year was going to be so special; he now had the one he wanted.

He opened the door and pulled Ryan towards him into a tight embrace and had their second kiss of the New Year, knowing there would be plenty more to come.


	2. Valentine's day

Valentines Day.

Troy and Ryan had been dating now for 2 glorious months and 14 wonderful days. Today being Valentines Day though Troy wanted to do something absolutely perfect for his boyfriend. In the time he had been dating Ryan he had discovered that he was all about romance. He had been dropping hints for weeks about Valentines, most of which were more than obvious, even to someone as oblivious as Troy Bolton.

Troy had never been very huge on romance, but he understood where Ryan was coming from. Couples should be with each other on Valentines Day, spend ridiculous amounts of money on each other and then spend the night… well… you know.

That was another thing that worried him about this particular holiday. Despite his cool exterior and the idea all his friends had of him, Troy Bolton was a complete virgin. He had never gotten that far with a boy or a girl and so he was very nervous that he would mess up the day he wanted to devote entirely to the most amazing and beautiful person in his life, Ryan Evans.

But that worry would have to be put on standby as he had to concentrate on getting through the day, before worrying about the night. He had planned out the entire day (with the help of Gabi of course) and he hoped that Ryan would appreciate it. He was meeting him at 7pm and they were going to have the best night ever.

By a complete coincidence Ryan chose that exact time to call. "Hey babe." Troy said suavely.

"Hey you." Ryan replied, smirking on the other end of the phone at the use of a pet name. "I was just thinking about you. Do you happen to know what day it is today?"

"Umm, nothing springs to mind." Troy teased.

Ryan rolled his eyes and after realising that Troy couldn't actually see him he spoke. "You know what today is, anything special planned for a certain special someone?" he giggled.

"Well you'll just have to wait and see. Don't worry, I have something planned, just be ready by 7 and I'll pick you up."

"Ok, sounds good, can't wait. Bye." Troy hung up and went back to preparing his plans for tonight.

Ryan was sitting upright on the couch, careful not to lean back and risk wrinkling his clothes. He had been like this for about an hour and it was still only 5pm. He was sick of waiting; time just went by so slowly in anticipation of his surprise. This surprise was going to be amazing, he could just feel it; tonight was going to be the best night of his life. Firstly he would be spending a romantic evening with his love and the night would be filled with all kinds of romance. He knew that this would definitely be on Troy's mind and he was excited but very nervous. All of his previous boyfriends have not been the most romantic in that aspect and a lot were very insensitive, sometimes even border line abusive, but he knew that Troy wasn't like that at all.

It was only 5:10pm so Ryan was surprised when he heard the door bell. He opened the door to reveal Troy standing there with a dozen red roses in his hand. He loved how Troy could be romantic when he tried. Troy's outfit consisted of a white shirt with swirling blue tribal patterns stitched into it, a smart casual jacket on top and a pair of dark blue jeans. Ryan had never seen him look more wonderful.

"What are you doing here so early?" Ryan asked, confused at his early appearance.

"Because I know you and I knew that if I said seven you'd probably be ready at about four." he giggled. Ryan smacked him lightly on the arm and tried to hide the fact that he was blushing.

Troy reached into his pocket and pulled out two tickets. He handed one to Ryan and said "I knew you've wanted to see it since it started so I thought I'd surprise you. I think you might like it."

Ryan read the ticket and saw that they were front row seats to see his favourite musical ever, "RENT". He flung his arms around his boyfriend and pressed his lips against his.

"Thought you might like them." Troy laughed, pulling away from the boy latched onto him and leading him to his beaten up truck.

They arrived at the theatre in no time at all and took their seats in the front row. The overture played and Ryan leant his head on his boyfriends head whispering one last "thank you" in his boyfriend's ear before he was fully immersed in the show.

"Viva La Vie Boheme!" The cast shouted these final words and the curtain fell signalling the interval had begun. The lights came up and Ryan's eyes were finally detached from the stage, where they had been glued for the past hour and a half. Troy knew he wouldn't get this opportunity again as soon as the curtains came up, so he made the most of it.

"Live in my house, I'll be your shelter" he began to sing in Ryan's ear, making him giggle.

"Just pay me back with one thousand kisses" he sang in return. When Troy tried to sing again he was suddenly silenced by Ryan's lips on his.

"So what do you think so far?"

"It was so amazing!" Ryan gleefully replied. "What about you?"

"Yeah it's awesome. I thought the cast were totally incredible."

"Really... Well I might be able to do something for you, seeing as you've done so much for me." Ryan grinned innocently.

"What are you planning?" He asked suspiciously.

"Oh you'll see when the shows over." And on that mysterious note the lights dimmed, the curtain raised and Ryan, and this time Troy as well, were immersed in the show.

Once again, for the last time the lights came into life and the curtains came down on a stage being bombarded with applause. Troy had forgotten entirely about Ryan's surprise for him so when he took him by the hand, told him to close his eyes and took him somewhere; he had no idea where, he was a bit apprehensive. They passed through two sets of doors, went up a flight of stairs and down a very long hallway until they obviously arrived at there destination. He heard a lot of whispering and was told to open his eyes.

He was stood in a backstage room, filled with champagne, flowers and the entire cast of the show. Now to say he was surprised would be an understatement; he was shocked speechless. Ryan seemed to notice this and whispered in his ear "I have my connections; this is a theatre after all."

Ryan introduced him to the cast, whom he had worked with a lot in previous productions. It was so fun to celebrate such a good performance with such talented performers; they were even invited to the after party, but Troy had to politely refuse as he had plans for the night ahead.

The two finally arrived at the Evan's mansion, Troy's old, rusted truck looking slightly out of place on the immaculate grounds. They walked along the drive and into the main lobby where Ryan took Troy by the hand and led him upstairs. Ryan sat on the end of his large king sized bed where Troy joined him, sat next to him and took his hand in his lap.

"I love you." Troy looked directly into his boyfriends eyes and said these words. He wanted Ryan to know that this was not all he wanted; that the whole relationship hadn't just been about this moment. Sure Troy was excited, still nervous but excited, and he wanted this to happen, but he wasn't just going to use Ryan. He loved him, and he wanted Ryan to know it, loud and clear.

"I love you too." Ryan pulled Troy into a long kiss, knowing that this night would be a night he remembered for the rest of his life.

AN: Well it has been criminal how long it has taken me to update this. It lay here to rot for months but I apologise to all my faithful readers. The thing is I've been working on writing a new musical so I've been a little occupied with that, but then I came across my old fanfic stories and thought I might as well finish what I started. I hope you enjoyed the chapter; please review and tell me what you think.

Much love,

Samuel x


	3. Halloween

Halloween.

"Troy, you know it's Halloween in a week. Well a load of the guys are coming round my house to watch some scary movies and stuff, you in?" Ryan asked. "Or are you scared?" he laughed but Troy had to go and get all manly on him; little did he know that he would pay for it.

"I don't get scared, ever!" he pointed out, laughing off the concept that he was scared. "I'll see you there; a night at your house sounds great." He winked and made his exit, leaving Ryan standing alone by his locker, rolling his eyes.

"Don't get scared huh?" he said to himself. A plan formed so quickly in his head that he already had his cell phone out before he even said that sentence. "We'll see about that." He typed out the text and sent it to all the people he needed. This was going to be a very fun Halloween.

It was Halloween night and Troy was driving up to the Evan's mansion in his beaten up, old truck. They had spent the entire week planning all this out. They had about 6 different horror movies (maybe more), so much food that you would get fat just by looking at it and all the guest bedrooms were ready for use; everyone was spending the night there. He went up to the door and rang the bell and only waited about four seconds before the door was flung open and he was greeted with those all too familiar lips.

"Hi, so glad you could come!" Ryan beamed.

"I wouldn't miss it." He smiled back and kissed his boyfriend's forehead. "So where is everyone?" he asked.

"There in the living room setting up the surround sound. If we're going to get scared out of our minds then we may as well wake the neighbours while we do it." Troy couldn't help but let out a small chuckle at Ryan's joke.

"Ry, you live in a mansion in the middle of nowhere, silly." He laughed.

"Hey, don't call me silly." He pouted. Troy just rolled his eyes and went through to the living room. He was greeted by a chorus of people shouting "hey" from Gabriella, Sharpay, Chad, Taylor, Kelsi, Zeke, Jason and Martha all behind the TV, except for Sharpay obviously who claimed she was "supervising". They were all obviously trying to set up the sound system for the plasma (Troy was glad that he had a boyfriend so rich). They were all definitely struggling and seeing as Troy was pretty much an expert with technology he went to save them from their misery. It only took him about 2 minutes for him to set it up and so they all settled down on the couch and separate bean bags. Troy and Ryan were snuggling up on the big couch, Ryan surrounded by Troy's strong, protective arms; he was going to need them there for all the horror films they had.

They put Stay Alive into the DVD player and that was how the night began. The order went Stay Alive with the evil Countess Elizabeth Barothy, Nightmare on Elm Street with the infamous Freddy Kruger, Friday 13th with the psycho killer Jason, Halloween, Scream and finally the Ring with the evil little girl, Samara, who made a habit of crawling out of people's TVs. Throughout the night Ryan could swear that he heard whimpers coming from Troy but every time he just denied it. They all started talking about how scary it all was and Sharpay came up with an idea.

"Hey, you guys ever done black magic before?" she asked everyone in the room.

"Erm… do you really think that's a good idea?" Gabriella croaked out. "I mean that's dangerous stuff."

"Oh come on, I've done this loads of times. Ryan and I always do this; we know what we're doing." She said, dismissing the question.

"Well if you're sure." She replied timidly.

"I am. Ryan, where's the spirit board?" Ryan ran out of the room and shortly returned with a wooden board and a pointer. "Now what you have to do if put your finger on the pointer and it should move, but don't move it yourself, that would make the spirits angry. Troy, how about you go first. You've been telling us all night how you don't get scared."

He was a little hesitant but he eventually said "Okay, sure."

He put his finger on the pointer and it jerked around violently almost straight away. It pointed to the letters and Sharpay read them out.

"C-O-M-I-N-G-FOR-YOU." It repeated this over and over until Troy pulled his finger away, terrified. He looked around and saw Ryan shake strangely.

"What the hell?!" he screamed at everyone in the room. "What the hell does that mean?!"

"Troy calm down baby, its fine, nothing bad is going to happen." Ryan soothed stroking his back, finally stopping his shaking. After a few moments Troy got his cool back, although he was still breathing heavily.

"It's late, we should go to bed." Ryan suggested and everyone agreed; it was about 4am.

Troy and Ryan were lying in bed in Ryan's room. Ryan was fast asleep snuggled up to Troy who lay wide awake. He wouldn't let on but he was absolutely terrified. He hated horror movies and that spirit board thing seriously freaked him out. He lay awake just gazing at Ryan and taking comfort in his boyfriend being there with him until.

"ONE, TWO, FREDDY'S AFTER YOU!" Ryan bolted upright screaming out these words, eyes shut tight.

"Ryan what are you…"

"THREE, FOUR, BETTER LOCK YOUR DOOR!" He continued to scream; still keeping his eyes clenched shut. Troy was now backing away from Ryan towards the door but realised, with horror, that it was locked.

"FIVE, SIX, GRAB A CRUCIFIX!"

"Ryan what do you…"

"SEVEN, EIGHT, BETTER STAY UP LATE!" Troy was now pressed against the door nearly crying.

"NINE, TEN…" The shouting had now stopped and Ryan turned to face Troy.

"Never sleep again!" His eyes shot open and his eyes were black as night. Troy screamed and shook the door, ready to break it down; anything to get out of here.

The door swung open and he ran out into the hall. He thought he was out but he turned around to see Countess Elizabeth Barothy, shears in hand, covered in blood. She began to lunge at him but he ran as fast as he possibly could down the stairs and into the lounge, hoping to get to the front door. He stepped inside and the TV flickered into life and the phone began to ring. A small girl with black hair covering her face stepped out to reveal herself fully… Samara. She walked towards him, arms outstretched. He knew that he would not be able to get out through the front door so he ran for the back door. He broke it open and ran out through the gardens in nothing but his boxers. A man in a black robe and a white, screaming mask emerged from behind the bushes. He produced a meat hook from under his robe and ran towards Troy lunging at him with his hook. He collapsed on the floor and he knew that he was done for. The robed man was towering over him. Troy shut his eyes tight, preparing for his death. The hook was almost upon him when a voice sounded over the sound of his own pounding heart.

"Gotcha!" He looked up more confused than he had ever been. The robed murderer raising his hand and Troy flinched but the hand just went to his face and removed his mask revealing a curly afro and a grinning face.

The other three came outside and removed their masks as well. The countess turned out to be Sharpay in a black wig and a red robe, Kelsi removed her long black wig that covered her face and Ryan put his fingers to his eyes and removed two black contact lenses. They were soon joined by the others and he saw Gabriella holding the spirit board, turning it over to show a motor.

Ryan pulled Troy to his feet and smiled. "You don't get scared, huh?"


End file.
